JOURNAL OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS 4 141–162 (1998)
The relationship between public relations
and marketing in excellent organizations:
evidence from the IABC study
JAMES E. GRUNIG AND LARISSA A. GRUNIG
College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Our basic prem ise is that organiz ations are best served by the inherent diversity of
perspectives provided by separate public relations and marketing functions. Theory
developed in the IABC Excellence P roject shows that public relations m akes an
organization m ore effective when it identiŽes strategic constituencies in the
environment and then develops comm unication program mes to build long-term,
trusting relationships with them. P articipation in strategic m anagem ent provides the
integrating link for public relations in enhancing organizational effectiveness. To
provide its unique contribution, however, public relations m ust be separate from
other managem ent functions. However, com munication program mes should be
integrated or coordinated by a public relations departm ent and that departm ent
should have a m atrix arrangem ent with other departm ents it serves. Therefore, we
advoc ate integrated m arketing comm unication of advertising and marketing public
relations. We add that an integrated marketing comm unication program me should
be coordinated through the broader public relations function. Data are presented
from the Excellence study conŽ rm ing that public relations is most excellent when it
is strategic and when m arketing does not dom inate public relations. However,
public relations was equally excellent when housed in a single departm ent or in
specialized com m unication departm ents. Beyond structure, we add that marketing
com munication theories, if applied by an integrated departm ent, differ in im portant
ways from public relations theory and that discussion and research are needed to
resolve these differences and to integrate the theories into a broader com munication
theory.
KEYWOR DS: public relations and strategic management; integrated communication;
integrated marketing communication; structure of public relations and marketing departments;
excellent public relations
INTRODUCTION
The role of public relations in management and its value to an organization have been
debated for at least 100 years. The debate has centered on the question of whether the role of
public relations is to support marketing or whether it serves a broader social and political
function. Tedlow (1979) studied the history of corporate public relations from 1900 to 1950
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and concluded that the public relations function survived during that half century because it
fulŽlled the broader function:
Public relations has promised two beneŽts to business: increased sales and protection from
unpopularity which could lead to detrimental governmental or regulatory agency activity. . . . It is
not as a sales device, however, but as a method for protection against the political consequences
of a hostile public opinion that corporate public relations has been most inuential. It it had been
restricted to sales promotion, public relations might have been absorbed by advertising
departments and could have been dismissed as a footnote to business history. Instead, it grew
into a tool for dealing with many publics, including residents of plant communities, employees,
suppliers and dealers, and politicians as well as customers. (Tedlow, 1979, pp. 193, 196).
The debate has continued, however, and has become intense in recent years as both
scholars and practitioners have debated the relationship of public relations to the concepts of
integrated marketing communication (IMC ) and integrated communication (IC ). White and
Mazur (1995) captured this debate when they described three possible ‘futures’ for public
relations:
There are a number of possible futures for public relations. In the Žrst scenario, it becomes largely
a technical practice, using communication techniques to support marketing activities and is
involved in work on product and corporate branding, corporate reputation, market penetration
and development.
In the second, public relations will increasingly become a social practice, helping organizations Žt
into their social environments, and working on relationships between groups to help bring about
social and economic development, and to help in completing social tasks.
These futures are not mutually exclusive. Public relations is a strategic and enabling practice. To
progress, it will need to mark out its agenda, and to invest in a programme of research and
development to do this (White and Mazur, 1995, p. 266).
Both Tedlow’s (1979) two historical paths for public relations and White and Mazur’s
(1995) three future scenarios centre on the relationship between public relations and
marketing: is one a subset of the other, does one serve the other or do the two provide
different but equally important contributions to an effective organization? In this article, we
address both the theoretical and empirical literature about this relationship. In doing so, we
conclude with the overarching premise that the organization is best served by the inherent
diversity of perspectives provided by marketing and public relations when those functions
remain distinct and coordinated yet not integrated. To develop this premise, we begin with
theoretical discussions of structural relationships between public relations and marketing.
STRUCTRUAL RELATIONSHIPS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
Kotler and Mindak (1978) were among the Žrst to address the relationship between public
relations and marketing when they outlined Žve alternative arrangements.
(1) Separate but equal functions (marketing and public relations have different functions,
perspectives and capabilities).
(2) Equal but overlapping functions (both are important and separate functions but they
share some terrain, particularly product publicity and customer relations; in addition,
public relations serves as a ‘watchdog’ on the social responsibility of marketing).
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
143
(3) Marketing as the dominant function (marketing manages the relationship with all
publics in the same way as the relationship with customers – ‘megamarketing’).
(4) Public relations as the dominant function (if public relations builds relationships with all
key publics of the organization, then programmes to build relationships with customers,
i.e. marketing, would be a subset of public relations).
(5) Marketing and public relations as the same function (public relations and marketing
converge in concepts and methodologies and a single department manages the external
affairs of the company).
Hallahan (1992) modiŽed Kotler and Mindak’s (1978) typology to include six arangements:
(1) celibate (only one of the functions exists), (2) co-existent (the two functions operate
independently), (3) combative (the two functions are at odds), (4) co-optive (one function
usurps the other), (5) coordinated (the two functions are independent but work closely
together) or (6) combined (the two functions operate within a single unit).
Public relations scholars and professionals have expressed fear of arrangements in which
marketing dominates public relations or when the two are combined into a single unit –
arrangements that Lauzen (1991, 1992) called ‘marketing imperialism’ and ‘encroachment’ on
public relations territory. Marketing professionals presumably would feel the same about
public relations departments taking over the marketing function. In a book on hospital public
relations, for example, Lewton (1991) described the problems of either a dominant or
combined structure:
Obviously, when the issue is one of merging both functions, and either public relations being
‘under marketing’, or marketing being ‘under public relations’, some concerns are inevitable, just
as there would be concerns if a hospital were going to have the human resources department
report to Žnance, or medical staff relations report to the legal department. In a public relations–
marketing merger, the PR professionals wonder why their discipline is seen as a subset of
marketing (which it isn’t), and wonder what marketing number-crunchers know about media and
stakeholder relations. They’re concerned that other noncustomer audiences will be ignored. If
marketing is placed under public relations, marketers wonder how a PR vice-president can make
decisions on pricing or set up an effective sales rep program. They’re concerned that their
customers – who are their universe – will get lost in the midst of ‘all those audiences’ (Lewton,
1991, p. 51).
In contrast to the frequent discussion in the theoretical literature about subservient
relationships between public relations and marketing, in a representative sample of 75 of the
300 largest US corporations Hunter (1997) found that public relations and marketing most
commonly are separate but equal management partners. Of these corporations, 81% had
separate public relations and marketing departments. In two- thirds of the cases the two
departments were on the same level and when one was above the other, public relations was
as likely to be above marketing as below.
Approximately one-third of the public relations departments reported directly to the chief
executive ofŽcer (CEO) and one-third to a vice-president of corporate communication. The
other third reported to other vice-presidents or lower managers. Few public relations
departments reported to or were integrated into a marketing department in these companies.
As might be expected, Hunter (1997) also found that marketing is more likely to be
dominant in consumer product companies, for whom the consumer stakeholder is most
important. Public relations, however, dominated in utilities, which are regulated and for
which government and other stakeholders are crucial.
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Hunter (1997) followed up his survey with qualitative interviews with public relations
executives in six companies. In contrast to discussions in the literature of conict between
public relations and marketing, he found that these executives described their relationships
with marketing as positive. Marketing and public relations departments cooperated as equal
partners who respected the contributions of the other.
The situation that Hunter (1997) found in the US suggests that we should examine not whether
public relations and marketing should be integrated or merged but how they work together most
truthfully in successful, well-managed organizations. That question was a major one that we
addressed in a 10 year study of excellence in public relations and communication management.
Principles from the Excellence Study
Together with four colleagues, we began a major research project in 1985 with Žnancial
support from the IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) R esearch
Foundation. The project addressed two major research questions.
(1) What values do public relations=communication management have for an organization?
(2) How should the public relations function be organized to contribute most to
organizational effectiveness?
The answer to the Žrst research question provided an overarching theoretical principle that
explained why the principles for organizing the public relations function make an organization
more effective. One of these key principles deŽned the relationship of public relations to
strategic management. Two others deŽned the relationship of public relations to marketing
and other management functions. (The theoretical principles were developed in Grunig, J.
(1992); some results were presented in Dozier et al. (1995) and complete results will be
presented in L. Grunig, J. Grunig and D.M. Dozier (in preparation)).
The value of public relations
The literature on organizational effectiveness indicates, Žrst, that organizations are effective
when they attain their goals (Grunig, L. et al., 1992). However, it also suggests that these
goals must be appropriate for the organization’s internal and external environment – which
consists of strategic constituencies (stakeholders or publics). If an organization chooses
appropriate goals, strategic constituencies will support the organization and, in doing so,
provide it with a competitive advantage (Vercic and Grunig, 1995). If it chooses inappropriate
goals, the constituencies will organize and constrain the ability of the organization to achieve
its mission. To be effective, therefore, organizations must build long-term relationships with
the publics in their environment that have consequences on organizatonal decisions or upon
whom those decisions have consequences.
Organizations plan public relations programmes strategically when they identify strategic
publics and use communication programmes to build stable, open and trusting relationships
with them. Thus, the quality of these relationships is an important indicator of the long- term
contribution that public relations makes to organizational effectiveness.
Strategic management as the key to excellent public relations
Participation in strategic management provides the integrating link that makes it possible for
the public relations function to contribute to achieving the goals of an organization. Excellent
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
145
public relations departments contribute to decisions made by the dominant coalition that runs
an organization by providing information to those senior managers about strategic publics.
Organizations use strategic management to deŽne their missions and make ‘relatively
consequential decisions’ (Mintzberg, 1994, p. 27), but they do so through an iterative process
of interacting with their environments. Most theories of strategic management do not suggest
a formal mechanism in the organization for interacting with the institutional, social and
political component of the environment and do not acknowledge the presence of public
relations (see, e.g. R ing, 1989). To a public relations scholar, however, public relations
departments provide the obvious mechanism for organizations to interact with strategic
constituencies that make up their social and political environments (for additional
conceptualization of public relations and strategic management, see Grunig and R epper
(1992), Vercic and Grunig (1995) and Grunig, J. (1996, 1997)).
When public relations is part of the organization’s strategic management function, public
relations departments are likely to manage communication programmes strategically. The
senior public relations manager helps to identify the stakeholders of the organization by
participating in central strategic management. He or she then develops programmes at the
functional level of the public relations department to build long- term relationships with these
strategic publics. In this way, public relations communicates with the publics that are most
likely to constrain or enhance the effectiveness of the organization.
The role of public relations in strategic management is most clear if we take a post-modern
view of strategic management as a subjective process in which the participants from different
management disciplines (such as marketing, Žnance, law, human resources or public relations)
assert their disciplinary identities (Knights and Morgan, 1991; Knights, 1992). A rational
approach to strategic management would suggest that participants come together to Žnd the
best solution to problems they agree on. The subjective view, however, suggests that
participants in strategic management from different disciplines recognize different problems as
important as well as different solutions. Marketing would see the problem of selling products
as most important, manufacturing the problem of producing products, human resources the
problem of motivating employees and Žnance the problem of acquiring resources. The value
of public relations, therefore, is that it brings a different set of problems and possible solutions
into the strategic management arena. In particular, it brings the problems of stakeholder
publics into decision making – publics that make up the environment of the organization.
Public relations and other management functions
Among the principles of excellent public relations that increase organizational effectiveness,
the research team proposed that integrating all communication functions through the public
relations department enhances the ability of the communication function to participate in
strategic management. With such integration, public relations departments are arranged into
horizontal structures that reect the strategic publics or stakeholders of the organizations. The
managers of these subfunctions – such as employee relations, marketing communication,
investor relations or community relations – have a matrix relationship with both the public
relations department and the functional department they serve (see also Tierney, 1993,
pp. 217–21).
However, the decision of which publics are most strategic at a particular time is made by
the senior public relations ofŽcer in collaboration with the CEO and other members of the
organization’s dominant coalition and resources are moved from programme to programme
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depending on which publics are most strategic in different situations. With such integration,
marketing communication reports to public relations but serves marketing, employee
communication reports to public relations but serves human resources and so forth.
Four principles of public relations excellence specify the relationship of public relations to
strategic management and to other management functions such as marketing.
(1) The public relations function should be located in the organizational structure so that it
has ready access to the key decision makers of the organization – the dominant
coalition – and so that it can contribute to the strategic management processes of the
organization.
(2) All communication programmes should be integrated into or coordinated by the public
relations department.
(3) Public relations should not be subordinated to other departments such as marketing,
human resources or Žnance.
(4) Public relations departments should be structured horizontally to reect strategic publics
and so that it is possible to reassign people and resources to new programmes as new
strategic publics emerge and other publics cease to be strategic.
Integrating com m unication: IMC or IC
In the US and throughout the world, there has been an intense debate over whether public
relations, advertising and sales promotion should be integrated into a programme called
‘integrated marketing communication (IMC )’. IMC consists of integrating what Harris (1991)
called ‘marketing public relations’ with advertising. In Harris’ (1991) terms, ‘corporate public
relations’ remains a separate function and is not placed under the marketing function. This
concept of IMC Žts the deŽnition of the American Association of Advertising Agencies
(AAAA):
A concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a
comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic role of a variety of disciplines – general
advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations – and combines these disciplines
to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact (quoted in Duncan and
Caywood, 1996, p. 18).
One can hardly deny the merits of integrating all marketing communication functions (see
e.g. Hunt and Grunig, 1994, Chapter 19). However, the view of public relations held by
most adherents of IMC is extremely narrow, as has been documented by several studies (e.g.
Tierney, 1993; Canonico, 1994; Tillery, 1995; Hunter, 1997). Most adherents of IMC see
public relations as a technical support function and not as a management function, consider
public relations to be press agentry or product publicity alone and deal solely with customer
publics. In addition, most interest in IMC seems to have come from advertising professionals
and agencies (Tierney, 1993; Hunter, 1997) and most studies that have shown support for
IMC from the profession have been studies of marketing managers and have been sponsored
by advertising associations (see Duncan and Caywood, 1996, pp. 19–20).
To overcome the objections to IMC from public relations scholars and professionals,
adherents of the concept began to use the term ‘integrated communication’ (IC ) in place of
IMC (Newsom and Carroll, 1992; Duncan et al., 1993). Dropping the ‘M’ from ‘IMC’ was
intended to make the concept more palatable to public relations as well as advertising and
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
147
marketing professionals by expanding the deŽnition to include stakeholders other than
consumers.
Duncan and Caywood (1996) proposed seven stages through which communication
programmes can be integrated: awareness, image integration, functional integration,
coordinated integration, consumer-based integration, stakeholder-based integration and
relationship management integration. Their last two stages closely resemble the integration
of communication through the public relations function that we have proposed in this article.
Indeed, Duncan and Caywood (1996) state that public relations will come to the fore in the
last two stages of integration, while pointing out the Žrst Žve stages emphasize marketing
communication and customer relations only:
Although the full role of public relations may have seemingly been limited in the Žrst Žve stages
to the promotional aspects of marketing public relations, the sixth stage demands a fully integrated
corporate communications function. Communication at the corporate stage of integration must
include employees, the media, community leaders, investors, vendors, suppliers, competitors,
government at all stages, and so on (pp. 31– 32).
Gronstedt (1996) proposed a similar ‘stakeholder relations model’ that included 11
stakeholder groups, only one of which was consumers and described several ‘receiving tools’,
‘interactive tools’ and ‘sending tools’, that come from the toolbags of public relations,
marketing and advertising. Nevertheless, Gronstedt (1996) placed consumers at the centre of
his stakeholder diagram in the belief that the consumer is always the most strategic
stakeholder.
We disagree with that fundamental premise. One can make an equally good case that
employees or investors are the most strategic public. In reality, however, different publics are
more or less strategic for different kinds of organizations and which public is most strategic
changes as situations change. For example, investors may be most strategic during a take-over
attempt, employees may be most strategic following downsizing and donors generally will be
most strategic for non- proŽt organizations.
The integration of communication functions that we propose, therefore, incorporates these
higher levels of integration proposed by IMC theorists. The major difference is that we do
not propose moving integration upward through the marketing communication function.
R ather we propose beginning at the highest level of integration and then pulling marketing
communication and communication programmes for other stakeholders into the public
relations function. Drobis (1997–1998), the CEO of Ketchum Public Relations Worldwide,
took the same position recently when he declared that ‘integrated marketing communication
is dead’:
It died because we never could decide if it was a tool to help sell advertising and public relations
agency services or if it was a true, complete communications discipline. As a result, the term
‘integrated marketing communications’ was frequently abbreviated to ‘integrated communications’
and came to stand for many things, but nothing in particular. Admittedly, integrated marketing
communications as it was originally conceived seemed to stand for the blending of multiple forms
of marketing communications. Still, given its potential for greatness, the discipline withered under
the chronic stress of being misunderstood by public relations professionals, many of whom
consider the role of public relations in ‘integrated marketing communications’ too narrow. Let’s
just call its cause of death ‘unknown’ (p. 6).
Drobis (1997–1998) went on to say that IC must
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. . . go beyond marketing to encompass employee and labor relations, investor relations,
government affairs, crisis and risk management, community affairs, customer service and just about
any other facet of management where effective communications is a critical success factor (p. 7).
He concluded that
Public relations practitioners are in the best position to manage the integrated communications
process because, unlike other communications disciplines, they are involved in every facet of the
organization. It is their job to listen and respond to the full range of important stakeholders
(Drobis, 1997– 1998, p. 9).
In summary, the theoretical discussions of and research on the relationship between
marketing and public relations suggest that few public relations and marketing functions
actually have been merged into single departments and that the two separate functions
generally work well together. They work together well because public relations departments
possess the environmental scanning and communication expertise needed by marketing and
other management functions. The discussion of IMC and IC then suggests that all
communication functions should be integrated into or coordinated by the public relations
department, that is IC.
In practice, communication professionals who provide marketing communication skills
(both advertising and marketing public relations) have different technical expertise than other
specialized public relations people (Spicer, 1991). Therefore, marketing communication
programmes are often housed in separate departments from other public relations functions
even though they practice IMC – usually in business units rather than at headquarters
(Hunter, 1997, Chapter 10). We propose for strategic reasons, however, that marketing
communication report to or at least be coordinated by a corporate- level public relations
department.
The IABC Excellence study provided evidence both on the strategic role of public relations
and its relationship to marketing – evidence to which we now turn.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE FROM THE EXCELLENCE STUDY
The Excellence Research Project consisted of two empirical stages. In the Žrst stage, the
research team administered three questionnaires to the head of public relations, the CEO and
a mean of 14 employees in 323 organizations in the US, Canada and the UK. These
organizations were chosen to include corporations, government agencies, non- proŽt
organizations and associations, large and small organizations and some organizations believed
to be excellent and some less than excellent.
The Excellence Project theory consisted of relationships between variables from such
subtheories as public relations roles, participation in strategic management and models of
communication. The subtheories were operationalized into some 1700 questions on the three
questionnaires. We used factor analysis to reduce these variables to a single index after Žrst
combining a number of indicators of variables into indices. We then correlated the overall
index of excellence with related variables, such as the relationship between public relations
and marketing. Finally, we used the index to identify 24 organizations with the highest and
lowest scores on the overall excellence factor and conducted qualitative research on these
organizations to gain insight into how excellent public relations came about in different
organizations as well as detail on the outcomes produced by Excellence.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
149
The value of public relations
The major premise of the Excellence Project theory stated that communication has value to
an organization because it helps to build good long- term relationships with strategic publics,
so measures of the value of public relations were perhaps the most important variables to be
included in the Excellence factor. We measured the value of communication through the
method of compensating variation (Ehling, 1992), by which we asked the CEO to estimate
the value of public relations in comparison with other management functions and to estimate
the rate of return to communication. We also asked the top communicator to make similar
estimates and to predict the estimates that the members of senior management who made up
the dominant coalition of decisions makers in the organization would make on the same
variables.
Both the CEOs and top communicators estimated the return to public relations highly –
186 and 197%, respectively. However, the heads of public relations underestimated the
CEO’s estimate: 131%. On the question that asked the CEOs and public relations heads to
compare the value of the public relations department with the typical organizational
department, respondents were told that 100 was the value of a typical department. CEOs
provided a mean score of 159 and heads of public relations a mean score of 189. Again, the
public relations heads underestimated the value that the CEO would assign to the department:
138.
In the qualitative portion of the study, we asked CEOs to explain why they assigned the
value they did to their public relations departments. Their explanations provided further
evidence that our theory of the contribution of public relations to organizational effectiveness
was accurate (Grunig, L. et al., 1994). However, the support came more in the form of their
explanations of the value of public relations than from estimates of monetary value. As we
had theorized, CEOs and public relations managers said they believed that credible, positive
relationships serve as a buffer between the organization and its key constituencies in times of
conict and crisis.
At least one top communicator was reluctant to link dollar Žgures to public relations efforts
because of fear that the numbers would seem almost unbelievably high. When participants in
the qualitative research did attempt to talk about the value of public relations in dollar
amounts, the numbers were actually high. Some estimated that they had saved their
organization millions of dollars in fending off law suits. One CEO acknowledged that his
entire association had been saved by the successful handling of a crisis.
Contribution to strategic m anagem ent
Our research into the value of public relations was most useful when we could correlate
estimated values with the characteristics of excellent public relations, such as involvement in
strategic management and the relationship between public relations and marketing. For
strategic management, we asked CEOs and heads of public relations units to describe the
extent to which public relations contributes to four strategic functions in their organizations:
strategic planning, response to major social issues, major initiatives such as acquisitions or new
products and programmes and routine operations such as employee communication or media
relations.
For the overall sample, we found that public relations units most often contribute to routine
operations and in response to major social issues. They are less likely to participate in major
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initiatives and, particularly, in strategic planning. We also asked what public relations units do to
contribute to strategic management when they are involved in the process. The responses
showed that communication units that participate in strategic planning most often do so through
informal approaches, contacts with inuential people outside the organization and judgement
based on experience. The typical public relations department less often conducts research or uses
other formal approaches to gathering information for strategic planning – an indication that
many communication units are not qualiŽed to make a full contribution to strategic planning.
However, this picture changed dramatically when we looked at the departments that were most
valued by their CEOs and that conform most to our criteria for excellence.
Strategic management as seen by CEOs
To develop a relatively simple picture of how CEOs view excellent public relations, we
placed organizations into three categories based on responses to a questionnaire item that
asked respondents to compare the value of public relations with the value of other
management functions. Most (212) of the responses fell into the category between 100 and
200, which is labelled medium value in Table 1. Thirty-eight CEOs rated public relations in
the low category (below 100) and 34 rated it in the high category (above 200).
Table 1 shows that participation of public relations in these strategic organizational
TABLE 1. Comparison of means for contributions to strategic management by
public relations departments valued differently by CEOs
Variable
Contribution to organizational functions
Strategic planning
Response to major social issues
Major initiatives
Routine operations
Low
value
(n ˆ 38)
6.56
8.78
8.24
10.09
Contribution to strategic management (if any)
Regular research activities
5.05
Research for speciŽ c questions
6.76
Other formal approaches
6.11
Informal approaches
7.74
Contacts with knowledgeable people
8.88
outside organization
Judgement based on experience
8.89
Other variables
Percentage return on public relations
a
126.00
Medium
value
(n ˆ 212)
High
value
(n ˆ 34)
F
8.89
11.95
10.90
12.71
13.04
14.27
14.20
15.17
21.96
22.57
30.06
26.98
8.29
9.56
9.12
10.54
11.32
11.07
11.88
11.72
14.21
15.55
15.86
15.74
18.22
33.18
32.52
11.38
14.45
19.37
178.00
265.00
9.36
14.83
a
Calculated after scores were transformed to a square root to reduce skew.
p , 0.01.
Except for the percentages, the means in this table came from an open-ended `fractionation scale’. With
this scale, respondents provided a score from zero to as high as they wanted to go. They were also
told that 100 is a typical response on all of the items in the questionnaire as a reference point. To
reduce skew, a square-root transformation was performed. Thus, in this table a mean of 10 – the
square root of 100 – represents this reference point.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
151
functions signiŽcantly and strongly distinguished the levels of value CEOs assigned to public
relations. Likewise, Table 1 shows that the CEOs of highly valued departments assigned a
return on investment in public relations approximately twice as high as for the weakly valued
departments.
Factor analysis and canonical correlation of characteristics of public relations and value of
communication
The Žrst column in Table 2 shows the results of the factor analysis that identiŽed 20 key
characteristics of excellent public relations departments and the organizational context that
TABLE 2. Factor analysis to produce index of excellence and canonical
correlation of variables measuring value of public relations with other
excellence variables
Variable
Factor
loading
Canonical
variate
score
Characteristics of public relations and organization (variable group 1)
CEO variables
Public relations in strategic planning
Importance of communication with external groups
Preference for two-way asymmetrical model
Preference for two-way symmetrical model
Preference for managerial role
Preference for senior adviser role
Public relations head variables
Public relations in strategic planning
Estimate of preference for the two-way asymmetrical
model by the dominant coalition
Estimate of preference for the two-way symmetrical model
by the dominant coalition
Public relations head in manager role
Public relations head in senior adviser role
Knowledge of two-way asymmetrical model
Knowledge of two-way symmetrical model
Knowledge of managerial role
Estimate of support for women in organization
Participative organizational culture
Value of public relations (variable group 2)
CEO variables
Support for public relations by dominant coalition
Value of public relations department
Public relations head variables
Perceived support for public relations by dominant coalition
Estimated value dominant coalition would assign to public
relations
Canonical correlation
p,
0.01.
0.28
0.34
0.39
0.33
0.36
0.35
0.64
0.47
0.51
0.42
0.58
0.56
0.56
0.48
0.64
0.34
0.55
0.44
0.56
0.49
0.64
0.67
0.72
0.50
0.24
0.38
0.26
0.43
0.39
0.45
0.43
0.11
0.41
0.32
0.37
0.38
0.57
0.57
0.41
0.23
0.70
152
GRUNIG AND GRUNIG
were measured in the questionnaires completed by CEOs, heads of public relations and
employees. A reliability analysis veriŽed that all of these characteristics made up a single index
of excellence in public relations (Cronbach’s a was 0.85).
In this article, we have conceptualized only the strategic management variables in Table 2.
Detailed conceptualizations of the other variables can be found in Grunig, J. (1992) and
Dozier et al. (1995). However, all of these variables are included in Table 2, so that the
contribution of strategic management to the perceived value of public relations can be
compared with the other public relations variables.
After constructing this scale of excellence, we used canonical correlation to separate the
characteristics of public relations from the values assigned to public relations and to show the
strength of the relationship between the two sets of variables. Canonical correlation works
much like factor analysis, but the technique makes it possible to determine whether two
groups of variables correlate with each other simultaneously – in this case excellence of public
relations and value of public relations. Canonical correlation produces ‘canonical variates’ that
are much like factors except that the variates separate the blocks of variables and the
procedure computes an overall canonical correlation between the blocks. The correlations of
each variable with the underlying variate also indicate the strength of the relationship of each
variable with the underlying variate.
The second column in Table 2 shows that canonical correlation essentially reproduced the
excellence factor. All but one of the variables have high correlations with the underlying
variate: participative organizational culture has a positive but low correlation. The canonical
correlation between the two sets of variables is high, supporting the theoretical soundness of
the Excellence Project theory. In addition, the second column in Table 2 shows that
involvement of public relations in strategic planning and the CEO’s preference that the senior
public relations person be a manager or senior adviser increased the perceived value of public
relations most. As we theorized, CEOs estimated higher values for public relations when it
fulŽls a strategic managerial role.
Relative support for public relations and m arketing
In the questionnaire completed by the senior public relations ofŽcer, a series of three questions
asked whether the organization had separate communication units for ‘marketing-related public
relations’ and another for ‘public affairs’ – essentially the distinction that Harris (1991) and
others have made between ‘marketing public relations’ and ‘corporate public relations’. A
second question asked which unit had the larger budget. We then asked, ‘R egardless of
whether you have separate units, which function – public affairs or marketing-related public
relations – receives more support from senior administrators – the dominant coalition?’
This third question was most useful in analysing the relationship between support for
marketing and public affairs communication programmes and overall public relations
excellence. Table 3 shows the mean score for the overall index of excellence and each
excellence variable when support for marketing communication was higher, when support for
public affairs was higher and when support was ‘approximately equal’. On the overall index,
excellence was below average when marketing received greater support, average when public
affairs received greater support and above average when the two received approximately equal
support. The differences were statistically signiŽcant.
Table 3 shows essentially the same pattern for most of the individual excellence variables,
Greater support
p,
0.10,
p,
0.05,
p,
0.01.
Public
relations
(n ˆ 104)
Equal
(n ˆ 137)
F
(Z-Scores)
- 0.16
- 0.19
- 0.29
- 0.32
0.01
- 0.15
0.03
0.12
0.05
0.13
0.09
0.16
0.14
0.09
0.21
0.11
0.07
0.09
2.49
2.54
6.62
4.68
0.14
2.18
- 0.17
- 0.05
- 0.17
- 0.11
- 0.10
- 0.15
- 0.15
- 0.06
- 0.31
0.25
- 0.07
- 0.05
0.00
- 0.02
- 0.03
- 0.04
0.02
- 0.09
0.11
- 0.11
0.13
0.08
0.11
0.09
0.04
0.07
0.04
0.02
0.05
- 0.04
2.89
0.44
2.31
1.13
0.51
1.28
1.12
0.33
5.47
3.76
- 0.19
- 0.15
0.21
0.19
0.00
- 0.03
3.63
2.27
- 0.31
- 0.12
- 0.22
0.08
0.06
0.05
0.07
- 0.04
0.12
4.98
0.78
3.62
153
Characteristics of public relations and organization
CEO variables
Public relations in strategic planning
Importance of communication with external groups
Preference for two-way asymmetrical model
Preference for two-way symmetrical model
Preference for managerial role
Preference for senior adviser role
Public relations head variables
Public relations in strategic planning
Estimate of preference for the two-way asymmetrical model by the dominant coalition
Estimate of preference for the two-way symmetrical model by the dominant coalition
Public relations head in manager role
Public relations head in senior adviser role
Knowledge of two-way asymmetrical model
Knowledge of two-way symmetrical model
Knowledge of managerial role
Estimate of support for women in organization
Participative organizational culture
Value of public relations
CEO variables
Support for public relations by dominant coalition
Value of public relations department
Public relations head variables
Perceived support for public relations by dominant coalition
Estimated value dominant coalition would assign to public relations
Overall excellence index
Marketing
(n ˆ 75)
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
TABLE 3. Comparison of means on 20 excellence variables and overall index of excellence by public relations heads’ perceived
support for public relations and marketing by dominant coalition
154
GRUNIG AND GRUNIG
although some of the differences were not signiŽcant. In some cases, though, the mean for
the variables was highest either when public affairs received greater support or when the
support was even. Almost always, the mean was lower when marketing communication
received greater support. The most important lack of difference in the means indicated that
public relations was approximately equally likely to perform a managerial or senior adviser
role with all three levels of support and CEOs were equally likely to prefer such a managerial
role. Levels of knowledge to perform a two- way symmetrical or asymmetrical model of
public relations and the managerial role also were not signiŽcantly different.
However, CEOs valued and supported public relations signiŽcantly less when marketing
communication received greater support and when the public relations head estimated less
support from the dominant coalition. Most importantly, CEOs were signiŽcantly less likely to
see public relations as a strategic management function and as a two-way function when
marketing communication received greater support from the dominant coalition. The same
was true when the top communicator said he or she participated in strategic planning and
when he or she estimated that the dominant coalition would prefer the two- way symmetrical
model. Interestingly, the public relations heads estimated that women received signiŽcantly
less support in organizations where marketing communication dominated. In contrast to the
pattern of Table 3, however, organizations that emphasized marketing communication over
public affairs were most likely to have participative organizational cultures, in contrast to
authoritarian cultures.
Overall, then, Table 3 supports the idea that public relations is most likely to be excellent
when marketing communication does not dominate the communication function. Public
relations has its greatest value when that function and the marketing function are treated as
equal partners in management.
Organization of the com m unication function
The initial Excellence Project theory speciŽed that organizations should integrate or
coordinate their communication activities through a central public relations function rather
than having independent units for such communication programmes as marketing
communication, employee communication, investor relations or media relations – either as
stand-alone units or units that are subordinated to other functions such as marketing, human
resources or Žnance. Independent units challenge strategic public relations because it is
difŽcult to shift resources from one set of stakeholder publics to another when those publics
become more or less strategic to organizational interests.
Some of the organizations we studied had a single public relations department, some had
one or more specialized departments and some had public relations programmes administered
by non- public relations departments. The latter were most likely to be programmes for
consumers (marketing), employees (human resources) or investors (Žnance). However, even
these latter programmes were relatively rare. Most public relations functions were organized
either through a central public relations department or one or more specialized departments
(see Table 4).
Table 4 compares the means on the overall index of excellence for these three
departmental arrangements. Excellence was slightly above average for centralized departments,
about average for specialized departments and below average for programmes in non-public
relations departments. The differences were not signiŽcant, however. Although Table 4 shows
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
155
TABLE 4. Comparison of means on overall excellence by type of communication
department
Department type
Number
Mean
Standard
deviation
(Z-scores)
Central public relations
Specialized public relations
Non-public relations
146
149
26
0.06
0.01
- 0.16
0.86
0.93
1.14
Minimum
Maximum
- 1.93
- 1.98
- 2.40
3.05
3.55
2.79
F ˆ 0:64, not signiŽ cant
that the non-public relations departments have the lowest maximum and minimum scores, the
standard deviations for all three groups are close to the standard deviation of 1.0 that
characterizes z-scores.
In short, the departmental arrangement seems to make little difference, although these
organizations rarely subordinated public relations to other functions. Central public relations
departments were no higher in excellence than a series of specialized units, although our data
could not show what if any coordination occurred between the specialized units. What
seemed to matter most was the support given to a broad public relations function by the
dominant coalition and the world view of the dominant coalition that public relations is a
strategic management function rather than merely a supporting function for other units such
as marketing.
Qualitative results
When we followed up the quantitative survey and data analysis with long interviews of the
heads of public relations and the CEOs of the most excellent organizations in the sample, we
found further evidence that public relations is valued most when it operates as a strategic
management function, as a two-way symmetrical model and as an equal partner with a
marketing and other management function.
When asked why they assigned high values to the contribution of public relations, the
CEOs of several of the top-ranked organizations said they particularly valued the
contributions of public relations in dealing with activist groups. One CEO, for example,
explained his top communicator’s inuence within the organization as a result of his training
all members of the management staff in what he, the CEO, called ‘symmetrical negotiations
or communication’. That training has resulted in an approach to communication that the
CEO considered ‘uniform’ and described as ‘an open, discussed decision that we will engage
in discussions no matter how frustrating, no matter how unnerving, no matter how ignorant
they [the activist publics] are’. He told us that although some other senior executives in his
industry may not value this kind of sophisticated public relations, many do. Their
understanding of two-way communication, in particular, has served them well. Through
this and numerous other, equally compelling interviews, we determined that two-way
symmetrical public relations, touted in the scholarly literature as the normative approach to
excellence, seems to be emerging in the actual practice of the Želd as well.
We also found evidence that public relations makes its greatest contribution when it is
aligned with the strategic management of the organization. The vice-president of public affairs
156
GRUNIG AND GRUNIG
in one of the top-ranked companies explained the relationship between public affairs and
strategic planning as follows:
Most people perceive strategic planning over here at this end of the corporation and if you get
through R&D, marketing and manufacturing and all these things somewhere at the other end you
have someone worrying about public affairs and public relations. My answer is that they have a
linear view of a corporation. If you view a corporation as being a [cyclical] work process . . . then
you take that linear view of the corporation and bend it around into a circle. Then it’s funny,
what comes together in the circle – strategic planning and public affairs.
This astute professional argued that everything in a company has to do with relations with the
outside world. He also explained public affairs as more of a two- way than a transmittal
process. Thus, in his opinion, ‘It is perfectly logical for the public relations function to be
directly tied to the strategic function’.
If public relations is to participate in the strategic planning process of the organization, then
what must be its position relative to marketing? According to several of the executives we
interviewed in both public relations and in top management per se, that relationship should be
characterized as ‘peer professional’, that is public relations practitioners must be on a par (in
terms of expertise, brains, respect and salary) with their counterparts in marketing – as in law,
science, lobbying and so forth. At times, of course, the functions may actually operate in
opposition.
One public relations manager in a gas and electric company we studied pointed out that
although public relations and marketing do many similar things, marketing has an easier time
demonstrating its impact. As a result, the potential for subjugation exists. So far, public
relations in that utility has been able to maintain its critical role in the arena of customer
service because utilities are increasingly adopting a demand-side philosophy. She called this
‘demarketing’ or trying to give customers what they want while pushing for energy
conservation.
Our interviews with CEOs with excellent public relations departments showed that top
management is better prepared to make informed decisions when it relies on the distinct
perspectives of both marketing and public relations. The CEOs told us they value public
relations most for the broad view of the environment – both internal and external – that it
provides. We came to understand that the environment of any organization and even its inner
workings are truly enacted. ‘Enacted’ means that the organization or its surroundings will not
be perceived as the same by different people in the same organization. Thus, top
management’s exposure to a variety of perceptions becomes critically important.
Thus, public relations counsel is not the only wisdom CEOs hear – and rightly so. They
listen as well to Žnancial people, to legal staff and to marketing experts. To some of the
people we interviewed, the advice coming from the communication department balances
counsel emanating from other quarters. As one top communicator said ‘You are going to Žnd
people in the organization – some of them at pretty senior levels – who are going to say,
‘‘Do not talk; do not say a word. We might be sued or we are going to damage our
market’’ ’. He saw his role as countering that closed attitude. However, he reminded us that
communicators must be at a level of responsibility and respect to guarantee that their opinion
carries equal weight. And, sometimes that counsel is most credible when it emanates from an
outside Žrm rather than a member of staff. As one agency head described his value to a client:
I believe he trusts my opinion and judgement and he knows above all that I will not bullshit him,
that I will tell him what the truth is. . . . I still maintain that the PR guy has got to bring to the
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
157
table the outside perspective that is by deŽnition lacking by those inside the organization.
Otherwise, the outside perspective is not going to be at the table when decisions are made.
In a comment typical of the two dozen CEOs we interviewed at length, one top manager
explained ‘Those of us who think lawyer like, those of us who think CEO like, those of us
who think technical like do not always take the big picture. And that’s what the public
relations=communication expert’s forte is: to take that big picture, to place it in the instant
context and to make sure that the system responds to what the real issues are . . .’
This quote is a plain language, real world version of the more theoretical argument
proposed by social psychologist Weick (1979). His notion of requisite variety held that there
must be as much diversity inside the organization as outside for the organization to build
effective relationships with all of its strategic publics – both internal and external. More
speciŽcally, Weick (1979) maintained that what he called the ‘enactment pool’ or the
perspectives of those (such as public relations professionals or marketers) who do the enacting
should be matched to the degree of variation present in the market-place. Enacting the
environment takes place at the boundary between the organization and the groups that matter
to it – groups we call ‘strategic publics’. Public relations professionals are boundary spanners.
We assume the primary responsibility for deŽning, characterizing and then responding to
those stakeholders that have the potential to most help or hinder our organization.
FROM STRUCTURE TO THEORY:
DIFFERENT APPROACHES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
The Excellence study, therefore, seems to provide compelling evidence in support of separate
marketing and public relations functions and of integrating communication programmes – not
just marketing communication programmes – through the public relations department or by
coordinating a set of specialized public relations departments. One major hurdle remains,
however, before communication programmes can be fully integrated: public relations theorists
and marketing communication theorists – particularly advertising scholars – conceptualize
communication in very different ways. Many integrated communication programmes,
however, apply marketing communication theory rather than public relations theory to
communication management and in ways that we believe do not result in effective
communication.
Although we prefer our conceptual approach to that of an advertising or marketing
approach, we recognize the value of different approaches and conceptual world views.
Therefore, in concluding this article, we describe differences between the two types of theory
that require discussion and debate to Žnd the contributions that each approach can make to a
comprehensive theory of public relations and to resolve conceptual differences between the
approaches.
We identify, therefore, these characteristics of marketing communication theory that differ
from our public relations approach:
(1) The recurring ideas that all publics can be treated as though they are consumers, that
consumers are the only publics that matter and that there is no difference between
markets and publics. Markets essentially consist of individuals making individual
decisions. Publics are collectivities – groups – that try to change organizational
behaviours and the societal or governmental structures that make up the social–political
environment of organizations. Thus, marketing strategies aimed at individuals, such as
158
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
GRUNIG AND GRUNIG
the social marketing campaign of the US Partnership for a Drug Free America, have
little effect when a problem such as drug use results from the structure of society (see
Wallack et al., 1993). Likewise, marketing concepts are of little use in dealing with
activist groups, which affected nearly every organization in the sample for the
Excellence study.
A tendency to overgeneralize the importance of marketing or of communication, with
statements such as ‘everything is marketing and marketing is everything’ or ‘all
communication is marketing and all marketing is communication’ (Schultz et al., 1993,
p. 45). Philosophers of science say that if something is everything, one cannot
distinguish it from anything else and, therefore, it is nothing, We believe there is more
to marketing than communication and to communication than marketing.
The application of the concept of exchange to all relationships. Economic relationships,
such as those important in marketing, may usually involve an exchange, but one needs
to build social and personal relationships on the expectation that reciprocity may not
occur. For example, Fisher and Brown (1988) proposed what we consider to be one
better principle of relationship building: be unconditionally constructive, even if the
other side does not reciprocate. Huang (1997) also developed a typology of
relationships with publics that include such concepts as trust and mutuality of control.
‘Speaking with one voice’ as an advantage touted for integrating the communication
functions of the organization. The concept also goes by the terms ‘orchestration’,
‘consistent voice’ and ‘seamless communication’ (Duncan and Everett, 1993). Newsom
and Carroll (1992) decried what they considered the ‘Tower of Babel’ that results from
people in public relations and marketing communicating with different voices. Moriarty
(1993) called for a ‘synergy of persuasive messages’. We question, however, whether
these catchy phrases mean that dialogue, interaction, learning and innovation – the
essence of what we call two- way symmetrical communication – are to be discouraged.
We believe all members of organizations should be encouraged to speak and listen to
many members of publics and markets in many voices so that they obtain new ideas
and innovate. The organization may gain an advantage in speaking with one voice, but
it suffers the disadvantage of listening with one ear.
DeŽning two- way communication as a response to a message rather than a reciprocal
and continuous process of listening and dialogue (e.g. Schultz et al., 1993, p. 123). In
our strategic theory, public relations is an ongoing process built into the organizational
structure in which the ideas of publics are brought into the decision-making processes
of management is just as important as affecting the behaviour of publics.
Overemphasis on the behaviour of publics and underemphasis on the behaviour of
management. It is much easier to control one’s own behaviour than that of others.
Thus, the purpose of public relations is to contribute to organizational decision making
so that the organization behaves in ways that publics are willing to support rather than
in ways that publics oppose with their own behaviours.
An emphasis on symbols and their effects on the cognitions and attitudes of publics
rather than on the behavioural relationship of organizations and publics (see Grunig,
1993a,b). Marketing communication concepts such as identity, image, brand and
reputation (e.g. Van Riel, 1995; Rebel, 1997) suggest that the right message can
implant the corporate ‘identity’ into the public’s ‘image’ and, by implication, that one
can manage reputation by managing the production and distribution of symbols. In our
view, the reputation of a corporation consists of the behaviours of the corporation that
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING
159
publics recall cognitively. The value of a brand lies not just in the recognition of a
name but in the trust people have in a company and its products. Thus, we believe the
most effective way to manage a reputation or brand image is by using two-way
symmetrical communication to help manage the organizational behaviours that produce
a bad reputation and to develop a trusing relationship with both consumer markets and
publics. To a great extent, these marketing concepts have been derived from
personality theories whereas our concepts come from theories of participatory
democracy. A Danish handbook on public relations explained the difference this way:
Parallel with the fact that modern marketing sees the organisation as a personality, we see the
business as a citizen with what that implies of duties (in the form of responsibility for and
adaptation to the whole) and rights (in the form of a right to argument [sic] for and pursue one’s
objectives) (Blach and Højberg (1989), cited in Biker and Hovgaard (1994) emphasis by Biker and
Hovgaard).
CONCLUSION
We began with the premise that organizations are best served by the inherent diversity of
perspectives provided by the marketing and public relations disciplines. The data presented
from the IABC study have conŽrmed that premise: public relations is most excellent when it
exists as a separate strategic management function from marketing. We concluded, however,
by pointing out that marketing communication theories when applied in an integrated
communication department differ in important ways from our public relations theories. The
discipline of communication management, like organizations, should beneŽt from the diversity
of these perspectives. Much discussion and research are needed, however, to resolve the
differences and integrate the most useful concepts from each perspective.
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BIOGRAPHIES
James E. Grunig is a professor of public relations in the College of Journalism of the
University of Maryland, College Park. He is the co-author of Managing Public Relations, Public
Relations Techniques, and Manager’s Guide to Excellence in Public Relations and Communication
Management. He is editor of Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management. He
has published over 150 articles, books, chapters, papers and reports. He has won three major
awards in public relations: the PathŽnder Award for excellence in public relations research of
the Institute for Public Relations Research and Education, the Outstanding Educator Award
of the Public R elations Society of America (PRSA) and the Jackson, Jackson and Wagner
Award for behavioural science research of the PR SA Foundation. He directed the $400 000
research project for the International Association of Business Communicators R esearch
Foundation on excellence in public relations and communication management.
Larissa A. Grunig in an associate professor of public relations in the College of Journalism
at the University of Maryland, College Park. She teaches scientiŽc and technical writing,
public relations and communication research. In 1989, Dr Grunig received the PathŽnder
Award for excellence in research, sponsored by the Institute for Public R elations R esearch
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and Education. She was co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Public Relations Research
and has written more than 100 articles, book chapters, monographs, reviews and conference
papers on public relations, activism, science writing, feminist theory, communication theory
and research. She also serves as a consultant in public relations and as a member of an
international grant team, sponsored by the IABC R esearch Foundation, investigating
excellence in public relations and communication management.